Crotty the Robber, Coffey the ex-TD, and a very big claim for damages
Senator sues paper for headline comparing him to notorious highwayman
SENATOR Paudie Coffey’s voice choked as he explained why he is suing his local newspaper for comparing him to an 18th century highway man.
‘I’ve bared my life here for the public to see because I believe it’s that important,’ the emotional exFine Gael TD said in the witness box of the High Court on Friday.
He was speaking in the libel case he has taken against the Kilkenny People, which is expected to continue this week, and which is the talk of political circles.
‘I feel so proud of my name... that I want to clear it,’ Senator Coffey continued.
‘I’m seeking significant compensation for the damage caused to my name and that of my family. I’ve made a decision to take a stand.’
Stand and deliver was apparently the cry of the highwayman, Crotty the Robber, still famous in Waterford but largely unknown in the rest of the country – until this week.
The bandit, who was regarded as the county’s answer to Robin Hood, was the focus of the libel action taken by Senator Coffey against the Kilkenny People.
That paper, in the run up to the last general election, published a press release written by Mr Coffey’s own parliamentary party colleague, which described him as ‘Coffey the robber’.
Fine Gael deputy John Paul Phelan was unhappy about boundary changes in the Kilkenny/Waterford constituency and accused Mr Coffey of ‘robbing chunks of south Kilkenny’ through a boundary review.
However, rather than take issue with Mr Phelan, who is now a minister of state in Leo Varadkar’s Government, Mr Coffey told the High Court this week that it was the newspaper that was at fault for publishing his words.
He admitted that he had never even brought up the issue with his colleague.
It’s his contention that the article and its accompanying headline ‘Coffey the robber’, was in part responsible for him losing his Dáil seat.
‘Its publication amounted to a huge hatchet job done to me at the most vulnerable time in my political career,’ he said. ‘It contributed in a huge way to the result.
‘I just could not believe what it contained. I was never, ever a robber. And I thought of the words of my mother: “If you scatter the feathers to the four winds, how are you ever going to collect them?”’
He said his colleague’s press release was ‘pure lies’ and he had ‘nothing whatsoever to do with the boundary review’.
And the damage done by comparing him to a bandit was ‘beyond belief’.
‘This is not folklore,’ he said. ‘There was a man called Crotty the Robber. He robbed and he murdered and he was hanged for his crimes.
‘I was clearly likened to this known highwayman from Waterford.
‘I’m fighting for my good name today. My good name!’
Earlier in the week, Mr Coffey had again become emotional when he recounted how his father was a county councillor and his mum a community nurse who went through ‘tough times’ in the 1980s.
He said these ‘tough times’ gave him him the resilience to be strong in the political career he entered in 1990 as a county councillor.
He lost the first general election he contested but was subsequently elected to the Seanad. He was finally elected to the Dáil in 2011 and even became a minister of state in a reshuffle.
‘Then,’ as he put it,’ this happened’.
Mr Coffey described how the publication of the article led him to be jeered at in the street on occasion and even ridiculed by people he considered friends, among them the former Ireland rugby player Mick Galwey.
In fact it was an email from Mr Galwey to Mr Coffey’s cousin that alerted him to the article in the first place.
Mr Galwey’s email read: ‘Is this the best headline ever in the Kilkenny People this week? Class. Not, not even the Bomber will get ye out of this !!!!!! ’
Mr Galwey – and Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston presumably – were not the only sporting greats to get a mention: the cyclist Sean Kelly, hurler Henry Shefflin, and other ex-rugby players Liam Toland and Peter Clohessy also had their names taken in vain at various stages in the case this week.
Nine months after the email for example, Senator Coffey met Mr Galwey at a testimonial game for the late Anthony Foley at Thomond Park.
It was Mr Galwey’s words on that occasion which finally made him decide to sue for libel, he recalled
‘Aah, here comes Coffey the Robber!’ cried Mr Galwey when he saw Mr Coffey walking towards him,
‘I was extremely embarrassed,’ Mr Coffey told the court, again choking up. ‘I thought, “when is this ever going to stop?” ‘He ridiculed me.’ Rossa Fanning SC, for the Kilkenny People, at that point asked Mr Coffey did he really think Mick Galwey was being serious?
‘Yes, he ridiculed me,’ Mr Coffey replied again.
‘Are you seriously suggesting it was other than a joke?’ counsel asked.
‘It was a joke at my expense,’ said Mr Coffey.
Was he asking the jury to take the article literally, asked Mr Fanning.
‘I can only read what is in front of me,’ answered Mr Coffey.
Mr Fanning then pointed out that Crotty the Robber had a reputation for cannibalism. Was he asking the jury to say he was a cannibal?
Mr Coffey said that he was not aware that Crotty was a cannibal, but he was aware he was a murderer.
Never brought up issue with his colleague
He agreed it did not mean that he was a murderer or the leader of a gang of highwaymen. It did however compare him to a robber, he said.
It did not mean he was hiding in a cave in the Comeragh mountains like Crotty the Robber used to do, but Mr Coffey did point out that he was also from the Comeragh area.
He also reiterated that he didn’t consider suing Mr Phelan who wrote the piece.
‘I’ve often released press releases to the media but I’ve never expected them to be published verbatim in an article,’ he declared.
He also said that he never raised the matter within Fine Gael and nor had he looked for any disciplinary action to be taken against his party colleague.
Eventually, the court heard, Mr Phelan himself approached him asking him to reconsider suing the Kilkenny People.
‘He said, “can’t you be bigger and step back?”, and I said no, I was damaged by that paper.’
Asked why he didn’t go to the press ombudsman to make a complaint to resolve the issue, Mr Coffey said it was his ‘constitutional right to go to the High Court’.
He said his solicitor had written to the Kilkenny People asking for an apology and it had taken them eight months to even reply. The reply was not the one he wanted, he added indignantly.
‘They said my claim was ridiculous, and they went further saying I was trying to bully them.’ The case resumes on Tuesday.
‘It was a joke at my expense’